[nauticalrich]

I''ve left my mast up for the 4 years i have had my boat. So far so good. The only thing that bothered me was the vibration of the mast when the wind gets heavy. You can feel the whole boat shake under you.
This is why they recommend checking your poppets (stands)to make sure they don''t shake lose and be sure to hook a chain from one stand to the other. This should keep them from sliding out. A new person hauled my boat out last year and when i climbed aboard the boat had settled and was actuall sitting on the poppets and not the keel. I adjusted them lower to put the pressure on the keel where it belongs. Good luck this winter to all of us.